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Archive for June, 2014

It took me a lot longer to make it back to Indiana from the Oklahoma stronghold than my original trip down to Texas from Indiana had taken.

One of the things they don’t show in all those apocalypse films is that after a while, gasoline goes bad. Even if a fuel stabilizer is used, it only lasts about 12 to 15 months before it loses enough of its volatility you may as well use maple syrup to run your car. The stronghold has working vehicles because we have contacts with other survivor groups that have holed up in some smaller refineries and trade fuel for other supplies we provide to them, but I was stuck scrounging as I went. Therefore, after two years, most motorized transportation I was going to come across had become useless. Diesel generally still works, but it makes enough noise that not only do the zeds know you’re coming, but so does every marauder, pirate, war clan and other I’d rather be caught by a zed than them low life that’s found a way to survive by preying on others.

So what had taken few days on the trip down, took just over two months on they way back. Of course that includes checking out a couple of survivor camps on the way to see if my grandson had passed thru. As well as a couple of weeks giving some cannibal tribe the slip in Missouri.

Granted, the reason the cannibals were so dogged was that after the third day of avoiding them I decided to grab one to see if my grandson had been at their table (one way or the other). It turns out they had just moved into the area and hadn’t seen him. I’m not much for killing helpless prisoners (even cannibals who have been trying to eat me) but the idiot tried to call for help when some of his clan happened by before I could finish gagging him after our conversation.

I’m not sure exactly where he had fit in their hierarchy, but after that, they seemed very determined to put me on a spit. Eventually I had to back track and introduce the clan boys to a large herd of zeds I’d managed to trap in an old warehouse a little before I’d run into them. Once that was done, I finished making my way back to Kokomo without to much trouble. Now I just had to decide how to search for my grandson without attracting the entire zed population of Kokomo.

Like most of us, I’d always assumed that the various members of my immediate family had either been eaten or turned zed years ago.

My son and his kids had been caught in one of the early quarantine zones the government had tried to set up. In typical government stupidity, the brass decided it was better if everyone in theses zones died (possibly with some 9mm help) in order to stop the spread of this disease rather than risk further outbreaks. They didn’t know yet that it didn’t matter how you died, you reanimated. So Instead of containing the virus, they created a zombie army that they couldn’t contain. I tried without much hope to reach them early on, but once the government broke down and Nancy turned, I gave up all hope that they survived.

That was, at least, until a couple of weeks ago, when I ran across my grandsons neckless.

I was part of a group that had made the trek to another survivor stronghold for a supplies swap. I went mostly so I could scavenge parts to replace the various items on the wind generators that were starting to break down.

We got to the other stronghold without too much trouble, and had finished the swap when I noticed one of the other guys was wearing my grandson’s necklace. He had made it himself so it was a unique piece that I recognized immediately.

When I inquired about how he got it I was rather impolitely told to commit a physically impossible act. Being out numbered I decided to wait until we left and after a couple of days I doubled back. It took a few more days of waiting till I could get him by himself, but eventually the opportunity presented itself and after some persuading, I was able to convince him to tell me how he had acquired the neckless.

Turns out that about six months prior a guy matching my grandson’s general description had come thru and had taken refuge overnight with this guys group. They guy had bargained for some supplies including trading his necklace for some extra water purification tabs. The clincher was he had mentioned heading up to Indiana to see if any of his family had made it.

Yeah, I know it’s still a long shot, but what are you gonna do. It family, and if there’s a chance, you gotta check it out.